WHO. Star Dinozzo and her father. WHAT. Turns out ignorance isn't so bliss. WHERE. A Texas cafe'. WHEN. Sunday afternoon. WARNINGS. None.
Tony Stark didn’t dwell on the past. Or rather, he didn’t make a habit out of the activity. Whatever happened, it happened; that was it, plain and simple. That was why this whole reincarnate thing? Wasn’t necessarily too bad a gig. Not only did he have a decent view, but everything he needed was back, right at his fingertips all over again. From his tricked out tower to JARVIS - everything else was pure want, rather than necessity. Everyone he knew (excluding the likes of Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, if you were scouring for detail) and held in close regard were popping up like daisies in the damn springtime. Needless to say, things were going well for the man who once had to rebuild everything from scratch. Tony Stark was just missing out on one, miniscule detail: This life wasn’t only about him.
There was a kind of perspective put on the thing after one voicemail message was sent specifically to Star Dinozzo. We need to talk, it said. Five words that usually had a tendency to change every girl’s life. If Tony hadn’t been, well, Tony, then that might not have struck him with a sense of foreboding - dare he call it - fear. This time around, however, being on the receiving end sat strangely in the ex-billionaire’s gut. It wasn’t amusing, or just another game, it was meant for Star. Her eyes kept flickering back to the screen. The audio file was visible on nearly every screen in the workshop she had been hard at work in that morning - by request of Star to simply forward the things somewhere she could actually see them. He couldn’t remember if she slept the night before, but in that moment, it didn’t seem to matter any longer, because the sender’s name was only three letters: Dad.
Tony didn’t “do” the father thing. Howard Stark wasn’t what anyone would call one. Chasing a hand that wasn’t his to hold quickly turned a young boy into a man, and no new life could change that. Star didn’t have that problem. In some ways, she was the luckiest girl he knew. Her family might have been broke, but at least they made good by it. They were happy, content with one another’s company. They supported her dreams, her parents were there for her. The one time he can recall the girl’s life going sour was after he came along to screw it all up. Star didn’t see it that way - Star saw him as a new light. As some new hope that made who she was better. That was why she was confident about meeting with her father for the first time since then. Nevermind the fact she never once explained to them what she was - or who she was, for that matter. Her parents loved her no matter who was living inside her head. Of this she was sure.
Star’s fingers were spinning round a spoon in the contents of a coffee mug. Her hair was done up in a mussy ponytail, and she’d cut off the shoulders of Tony’s favorite Black Sabbath shirt to reveal thick tanktop straps - despite his protests about the whole thing. The light of her arc reactor was flickering excitedly, and she kept holding her arm directly in front of it, chin in her palm, to hide the glow. Please, you don’t really think that’ll do the trick, do you? You could have worn some layers, Starshine. Not something I suggest often, so you probably should have taken that as your first sign to listen up. The last thing she needed was advice from Tony Stark on what to wear in front of her father. He didn’t know him like Star did. Memories could only produce so much. This was her daddy - the man who saw to it that she was happy no matter where she was. That’s how she knew he’d entered their favorite cafe’ before she saw him. She turned her head, ponytail about as long as hers, and without a second thought, she leaped into his arms. “Dad!” She squealed, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder. “Daddy, I’ve missed you so much.” Her smile overtook her face, but as she set herself back down onto the ground, she noticed that his hardly even reached her mouth.
“I’ve missed you, too, pumpkin,” His words sounded far less than enthusiastic and he removed his hands from their embrace. “Is this us?” He asked, pointing a finger at the table behind Star. She glanced at it, somewhat confused, then looked back at him with a nod.
“Wha - yeah. Yes, it is. Yes. Totally.” She reached out for his hand, but he attempted to subtly slide them into his pockets. Shrugging it off, Star slid back into her booth, her father doing the same across the way. “I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t expect to hear from you.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I thought you and Ma got rid of the phone for good after I left. I called and I called, but you guys never … picked up. Dad?”
“Yes, sweetie?” He asked suddenly.
It was obvious where he had been staring - the light in her chest was enough to give her away anywhere. “What happened to all your beads? You actually look like a modern man today,” she laughed, pushing some curls behind her ear, but he didn’t return the chuckle. Instead, he returned his eyeline to the reactor.
“Well, after you left, your mother and I figured it was time to grow up, too.” He pursed his lips, a slight twitch in his left eye forming in telltale fashion. Star swallowed, twirling her spoon again. Not liking the look of this. You want me to -
“No,” Star said suddenly. Her father blinked, this time looking her in the face. “I - no, sorry. Why … grow up? Daddy, you’ve been living in Woodstock since before it was even a thing. Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Heart. Heh. Interesting choice of words.”
Star’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay, what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Mm? Nothing, bunny. Nothing at all.”
She folded her arms across her chest, this time straightening her back in her seat. Her voice lowered and she did her best to keep her tone down, “You haven’t looked me in the eye since you got here. You hardly said five words to me on my answering machine. Neither you, nor Mom, has tried to contact me since college. Now, all of a sudden, you just want me to meet you here in one of the most sentimental spots of my youth, for no reason other than to show me the exact opposite of sentimentality? I don’t mean to be rude, Daddy, but if I hear another friggin’ pet name, I might just vomit all over this damn table.”
“Star, you have to understand -”
“Understand what?! How you two decided to change everything after I was gone? How you couldn’t bear the idea of a daughter who was so freakishly smart that once she left the house, you wanted nothing more to do with her? Is that it?”
“That isn’t -”
“THEN WHAT IS IT, DAD?!”
“YOU SCARE THE FUCK OUT OF US, STAR.”
Every noise in the cafe’ stopped, and so, she assumed, did Star’s heart. The brightness illuminating from her chest appeared to dull and her eyes welled up. Her jaw tightened, but she refused to let a tear fall. Not here. Not in front of him. Not like this. She swallowed again, this time pushing down everything she had back into her throat. “So, that’s it? You must have talked to my Caretaker. She explained everything, then, huh? Everything that led up to now?”
“Star, your mother and I -”
“Save it,” she hissed. “I know what my ‘mother’ and you are getting at here. But before you turn into one of those cliched parents who can’t stand the sight of their child because they’re different, because they’re gay, or they’re a mutant, or they’re a goddamned reincarnate - I want you to understand something. Becoming a reincarnate was the best thing to ever happen to me. I’ve made friends that have changed my life. I was so … so stupid before Tony Stark came along. Yes, Dad. That’s his name. Tony Stark. Iron Man. Like the Black Sabbath song.” She inhaled through her nose, aware that now every eye was on her. “Before him, I was some stupid kid whose highlight of the month was a bonus at Starbucks. I can create things you could only dream of. I can see things that Stan Lee hasn’t even thought of yet. I can fly, Dad. Do you see this?” She pointed to her chest. Her father flinched, but she reached for his hand.
He tried pulling back, but she led his palm to the flat surface of the arc reactor through her shirt. “Look at it, Dad. This? This is reality. This is a part of me now. This is who I am.” Star bit back a bitter laugh. “I nearly died. No, in fact, I’m pretty damn sure I did die. And this right here, this arc reactor - Tony Stark’s arc reactor - it saved me. He saved me. I tried to call you when I woke up. Tried to let you know that you nearly lost your babygirl that night, but did you pick up? No. No, you didn’t, Dad, because you were too blinded by your own ignorance to see what was happening to that foolish teenage girl you once knew.”
A few iPhones had been pulled out, capturing the moment her father plucked his hand away in horror. “You listen to me, young lady. You can’t imagine what this is like for us. How horrified we’ve been - we’re scared for you. Scared that you might wind up like those kids on the tv. You’re part of a world we can’t live in any longer.”
Star stood up, pointing a finger down in her father’s direction. “You know what?” She folded her arms. “That’s the most truthful thing you’ve said since you got here.” She took a peek at everyone watching her watching them. “That’s right, folks,” she held out her hands, taking a step backwards from the booth. “You heard it here, first - I’m Iron Man.” Star put her hands in the pockets of her jean shorts. “And like it or not, that’s not going to change.” She took one last look at her father and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m a hero now, Dad. I’m not afraid of people like you. People who can’t see past their own noses. I know who I am. The question is - do you?”
Without another word, she held up two peace signs, one on each hand, and slid the sunglasses on her head over her eyes. The door was pushed open for her by a man standing at its side, and as she exited out into the midday sun, an echo of applause followed her out.
Not half bad. Of course, you do realize, you’ll be a YouTube sensation by the time we hit the highway, right? Star smirked to herself. “Oh, I’m countin’ on it.”